A team torn to pieces: Sportsmail examines the explosive findings from leaked reports

The three leaked reports into England’s disastrous World Cup campaign provide a damning insight into the shortcomings which led to a quarter-final exit for Martin Johnson’s team, with damaging allegations made in anonymous comments by players...

Paying the price: Martin Johnson resigned as England manager after a disappointing World Cup

MONEY BEFORE RUGBY

Player comments: ‘To hear one senior player in the changing room say straight after the quarter-final defeat, “There’s £35,000 just gone down the toilet” made me feel sick. Money shouldn’t even come into a player’s mind.’

‘You sense for some players it was more about getting caps and cash than getting better.’

‘Too many players were chasing endorsements.’

Rob Andrew report: ‘It was very disappointing that a senior player group, led by the captain Lewis Moody, disputed the levels of payment for the squad. It led to meetings with RFU executives in the last few weeks before departure for NZ. This led to a further unsettling of the squad. Some of the senior players were more focused on money than getting the rugby right.’

Premiership Rugby report: ‘They want for nothing. There is a real culture of expectation from players and a fear that rugby union is following a “football mentality”.’

FOY’S VERDICT

The profile of leading players in the professional era has seen rugby gradually follow football down the path of commercialism. This is an age of agents, image rights and multiple endorsements. The majority still appeared mostly motivated by the prospect of World Cup success rather than monetary gain, but the latter is undoubtedly a growing factor in the game that is here to stay.

Money, money, money: Rob Andrew was disappointed with the dispute over payments

COACHES

Player comments: ‘Each time we won a game we joked we had saved a couple of the coaches’ jobs again.’

‘The coaches seemed to have the same blueprint for every game. They didn’t seem to grasp that every opposition would play differently.’

‘To go into World Cup games not having a plan, any structure or any clear idea of what we were going to do in attack was astonishing.’

‘It seemed like the coaches had been arguing in their meetings about what the plan was.’

‘It took 13 weeks to bring in shape off the scrum-halves (get the attacking alignment correct), and that was only because Toby Flood and Ben Youngs lost patience and coached it themselves.’

Criticism: Kicking coach Dave Alred

‘We had kicking problems and yet almost every morning who do you see swanning around in a polo shirt about to play golf but (kicking coach) Dave Alred.’

‘They’d had four years to develop a plan and it felt like they were doing it off the cuff.’

‘At
our club there is a brutally honest policy. In England there was a
no-blame/excuse culture where you swept things under the carpet.’

‘He (John Wells, forwards’ coach) was out of his depth. There must be 20 coaches in the Premiership who would do better.’

‘Exactly
who is in charge of selecting these coaches and how do they get
assessed every year? If players don’t perform, we get dropped; on the
other hand, the coaches just seem to go through an internal review and
keep their jobs.’

Between
summer 2010 and the first half of this year’s Six Nations, England
developed an ability to threaten the best sides in the world, but that
progress vanished. There was a renewed sense that what should be an
elite environment was diminishing the players rather than enhancing
them. Too often they joined up with England full of confidence and form,
only to depart weeks later with neither. Rumours from players about
vague orders and lack of clear direction are borne out by these remarks

Brian Smith (attack coach)

Player comments: ‘He simply doesn’t understand the game well enough.’

‘The players had all the ideas for strategy and all he did was write the players’ ideas on the board.’

‘If we’d got to the semi-finals or final it would have papered over the cracks and the worst thing is Brian Smith would have stayed in his job. It might be a blessing.’

‘In one preview he said we should scrum and maul them off the park, then in the review he said, “Why were you scrummaging them to death?”’

‘I would be delighted if he went. Our attack play was boring, uninventive, lacklustre.’

FOY’S VERDICT

The devastating criticism of Smith — hired from London Irish to liberate England as an attacking force — echoes other private concerns expressed by players. With his contact expiring next month, his time is surely up.

Under fire: Brian Smith (left) and Mike Ford look to be hanging on to their jobs after fierce criticism

Mike Ford (defence coach)

Player comments: ‘His analysis was like a white wall of jargon.’

‘Defensive and lineout drills were 2-3 years behind.’

‘He was full of pointless stats.’

FOY’S VERDICT

There are some cutting comments here but it is understood the majority of players questioned presented him in a generally positive light.

MOODY AS CAPTAIN

Player comments: ‘We didn’t really have a good captain. I think Johnno liked Moody as he left the team talks to Johnno. He wasn’t very good at team talks, just f****d a lot.’

‘Rather than go for someone senior, they should go for a player who is guaranteed to start.’

‘There was a time when Lewis was going to address the squad and say it was unacceptable to behave the way they had done in Queenstown and get into the state Tindall did. But then X came in and said, “I don’t see what the problem is with having a few drinks, the press are just against us and making a mountain out of a molehill”. Of course, as soon as a senior player had said that, other players agree. Moodos had lost the moment to be able to dictate to the squad.’

FOY’S VERDICT

Johnson persisted with Moody as his captain despite doubts about whether he would be fit to participate. His faith was based on the lead-by-example template which inspired England to victory over Australia in Sydney 17 months ago, but Moody missed the Six Nations and the emergence of Tom Wood meant his place was not secure. He was always committed, but at times England seemed rudderless and unable to adapt to situations. This is also an indictment of other senior players who failed to take the lead.

Loyalty: Martin Johnson (right) stuck with Lewis Mooney (left) as England captain during the World Cup

MARTIN JOHNSON AND DISCIPLINE

Player comments: ‘It wasn’t Johnno, it was that Johnno was surrounded by the wrong people.’‘I suppose we just wanted Johnno to have the b******s to take action, especially after the Tindall night. He was too loyal and that was his downfall.’

‘The environment was a bit too jokey and disrespectful. It was an immature squad.’

FOY’S VERDICT

With hindsight, surely even Johnson can see he was too lenient over the behaviour which blighted the campaign. He allowed an informal atmosphere where even junior players called him ‘Johnno’ and he would engage with them on that friendly basis. In the case of Tindall, the feeling was that he didn’t seem comfortable taking action against a former team-mate.

THE BOOZING

Player comments: ‘It was the senior guys pushing the boundaries, treating it like an old-school tour.’

‘If it’s the senior players leading drinking games or drinking until they can’t remember anything, what example are the younger players set?’

‘We had three months in camp not drinking and yet the night before we fly to New Zealand, the RFU lay on a farewell party. Why are we being given the clear message it’s OK to get p****d when we’re about to fly to a World Cup. Then to be told there was a tab for us after the Argentina game seemed odd.’

‘Drinking games are unacceptable at a World Cup. Even if you’re given a free tab you should be able to show some self-restraint.’

While players suggested that the RFU’s decision to pick up a bar bill in Queenstown — as revealed by Sportsmail last week — sent out mixed messages, there is an apparent squad split along senior/junior lines, between the drinkers and those who abstained. In reality, it was more complex, with some from both ‘sides’ among the worst offenders. It should be noted that drunken behaviour was not a solely English preserve, as there were reports of excessive drinking by Ireland and New Zealand players too — while not even the Welsh, portrayed as angels, were true to that image all the time.

SELECTION POLICY

Player comments: ‘They selected Moody ahead of Wood despite Moodos being half-fit and Woody playing awesomely in training and in the Six Nations.’

‘Jonny Wilkinson is not an attacking threat any more. We really needed Flood because he is the one who bosses the team. Floody was part of the reason England played well in the Six Nations.’

‘There was over-riding loyalty shown in older players.’ ‘Chris Robshaw and Tom Wood proved themselves to be the fittest, the strongest and played out of their skins in training. But they were overlooked for “senior” players.’

Overlooked: England's Tom Wood shone in training

FOY’S VERDICT

This was a problem area throughout Johnson’s tenure. In addition to the examples given by players above, Steve Borthwick was chosen as captain and the management persevered with him long after all evidence and almost every outside observer suggested he was not worth his place.And then Flood was picked last year in place of the misfiring Wilkinson and, with him pulling the strings at 10, England prospered but the pecking order was inexplicably reversed prior to the World Cup.

PRE-SEASON TRAINING

Player comments: ‘Some
of the younger players trained their hearts out in pre-season and were
mocked by some players. If you were talking to coaches you were laughed
at for being keenos. What happened to the culture where everyone was
training to be the best in the world?’

‘Pre-season was not hard, it was just long. We felt physically and mentally drained at the end.’ ‘We would have had a better chance of doing well at the World Cup if we had been allowed to train at our clubs.’

‘There wasn’t enough emphasis on conditioning.’

‘There wasn’t enough focus on basic skills.’

FOY’S VERDICT

The
players’ dismissal of the work done at Pennyhill Park during the summer
supports the revelations in Sportsmail last week that the summer
efforts were mocked as a ‘holiday camp’. There was anger among clubs
about the state of players returning from the World Cup, amid wider
unrest about the work of the England fitness team. Players had to do
top-up work at their clubs on days off — a damning indictment.
Suggestions that some players poured scorn on rookies for working hard
lay bare serious attitude problems.

Not good enough: England players were far from happy with pre-season training at the Pennyhill Park Hotel

THE THREE REPORTS

RUGBY PLAYERS’ ASSOCIATION

The representative body and collective voice of professional players in England. Sent out a questionnaire to give players a platform to voice their concerns anonymously.

PREMIERSHIP RUGBYPhil Winstanley, the director of rugby’s top-flight league, held interviews with coaches, directors and key medical staff at all clubs who provided players.

THE RUGBY FOOTBALL UNION

The maligned governing body whose elite director, Rob Andrew, compiled a report based on the reports and interviews of the England management team.